'Accumulated North of Ten-Million Flight Hours"

Continental Aerospace Technologies, known to pilots as Continental Engines, is an aircraft engine manufacturer based in Mobile, Alabama’s famed Brookley Aeroplex. The company was spun off from automobile engine manufacturer Continental Motors Company in 1929 and is, in 2023, a subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

On 20 April 2023, Continental announced its Jet-A piston engine family had collectively accumulated north of ten-million flight hours. The engine-maker declared, also, that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had extended the Time Between Replacement (TBR) interval of its CD-170 engine from 1,200 to 1,800 hours. The two milestone achievements speak compellingly to the performance, reliability, and customer satisfaction by which the two engine series are characterized.

Upon the engine’s 2020 launch, Continental committed to increasing the CD-170’s TBR. The model is the highest horsepower mill in the CD-100 engine series and, owing to Continental’s resolve, now features a TBR that rivals those of its lower horsepower predecessors. Knowing the undertaking would occasion additional value to its customers, Continental prioritized the extension of the CD-170’s TBR, thereby providing owners and operators of the Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) powerplant an additional six-hundred hours of flight time.

The recent TBR increase is among the impetuses by which a growing number of pilots have been compelled to retrofit their aircraft with Continental’s Jet-A burning aero-engines.

Continental vice-president of global sales & applications engineering Oliver Leber stated: “We are proud that more than ten-million trusted flight hours have been flown behind our diesel engines. This growing number of flight hours shows that pilots are enjoying the ease of operating a single lever power control in the cockpit that reduces pilot workload while also benefiting from the cost savings of burning the more affordable and accessible Jet-A fuel.”

Continental’s Jet-A piston engines are popular amongst fleet schools and individual operators seeking advanced piston engine technology. Subject engines are available in select new certified aircraft from airframers the likes of Tecnam, Diamond, Piper, and Robin. What’s more, the CD-100 series is also available in a Standard Type Certificate (STC) retrofit kit for various aircraft—such as extant Cessna 172 and older Piper PA-28s. Conversion time, presuming the host aircraft is entrusted to a competently staffed MRO, is approximately 21-days.

FMI: www.continental.aero